Free Republic

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi security forces clashed with five wanted militants at a suspected hideout north of Riyadh on Thursday, killing four and wounding the fifth, a security official said. A security agent was also killed and two others were wounded in the shootout at a house outside the town of Buraida, the official said on condition of anonymity. Buraida is one of the kingdom's fundamentalist strongholds. The official said the men were "misguided individuals," a euphemism Saudi officials use to refer to Islamic militants. He said weapons and ammunition were found at the scene. It was not immediately...

The Associated Press reported this week that a Saudi cleric, Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, funneled money to an Egyptian, Rabei Osman Ahmed, who is said to be the mastermind of the Madrid train bombings last March. Al-Awdah's name has been repeatedly linked to al-Qaeda and bin Laden, yet since 9-11, he has tempered his rhetoric. The disparity between his public and his covert activity can be explained by a secret agreement between the Saudi regime and al-Adwah's Movement for Islamic Resurgence.Osman Ahmed's Milan apartment was reportedly wiretapped by Italian anti-terrorism police. In one taped conversation he is reported to say that...

Report: Pakistani president suspected of graft in submarine sale South Asia News Nov 10, 2009, 10:56 GMT Paris - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is suspected of having received millions of dollars in kickbacks from the 1994 sale of three French submarines to the Pakistani Navy, the daily Liberation reported Tuesday. In addition, investigators believe that the non-payment of the full amount of the agreed kickbacks may have led to the deaths of 11 French nationals in a 2002 terror attack in the city of Karachi. In the report, Liberation says it acquired documents that allegedly show that Zardari received...